The 1907–08 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

during the 1907-08

Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

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season. Maurice Joyce coached the team in his first season as head coach. Georgetown was an independent and played its home games at the

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at 5th and K Streets NW in downtown

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The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Home Courts
/ref> Joyce had introduced the new sport of basketball to Washington, D.C., in 1892 – the year after its invention by

James Naismith James Naismith (; November 6, 1861November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote ...

– and had fostered its development there over the next 15 years as Director of

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at the Carroll Institute. In the autumn of 1906, Georgetown had hired him as its

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

with an eye toward developing a men's basketball program at the school, and he had founded the program late that year, in time to field Georgetowns first team in the 1906-07 season. That team had had no coach, relying instead on an elected student manager to provide leadership, monitor the teams finances, and schedule games and practices – roles now performed by the schools athletic department and coach. For Georgetowns second season in 1907-08, Joyce formally became the teams first head coach, although this did not diminish the role of the student manager, who continued in his duties; rather, the head coach acted as a teacher and faculty advisor, available to provide advice to the players during games rather than lead the team on the court. It was not until the late 1920s that the modern role of the head coach as in-game leader emerged.

Season recap

During its inaugural season in 1906-07, Georgetown had played only four games, three of them against

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

. George Washington had won two of the three games, led by

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

Fred Rice. When George Washington decided not to field a basketball team for the 1907-08 season, Joyce convinced Rice to enroll in

Georgetown University Law School The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

and play for the Hoyas in 1907-08. In a low-scoring era, Rice got off to a spectacular start with his new team, scoring 20 or more points in four of his first seven games. Starting all seven games he played, he had no

free-throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the Key (basketball), restricted ...

attempts, but he scored 52

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, giving him 104 points and an average of 14.9 points per game; only one other Georgetown player would equal his per-game scoring average in the next 35 years. Rice would star for Georgetown for two more seasons before graduating from the Law School. Considered the first great team in Georgetown men's basketball history, the 1907-08 squad won its first five games before losing an exhibition game to

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and w ...

and suffering its only regular-season loss to a

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team that went 23-4 for the year. The Hoyas finished the season with a record of 5-1 and won the mythical "Champions of the South" title for the year.

Roster

Sources

1907–08 schedule and results

SourcesGeorgetown Basketball History Project: 1900s Records
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1907-08 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball seasons Georgetown Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team